As a curious-minded individual, I urgently had the urge to dive headfirst in the center of things.
Although I hate speaking to random people, I had no choice this time since I need to cross-reference whether I am the only one who was experiencing this issue, or everybody is.
As I began thinking about what probable reason that could cause this kind of malfunction, I suddenly remembered that I tried dismantling the VRCapsule earlier.
Three streaks of dark lines appeared on my head as I felt troubled. Did I really cause the machine to malfunction? Am I going to be stuck here?
Left with no choice, I interacted with the friendliest loudmouth near me.
"Hey, Spikyhead, can you help me with some questions? There seems to be something wrong with the system and if you help with the experiment, I can share the results with you."
The spiky head glared at me and I don't understand his sudden aggressiveness.
His hair was shaped spikes and I don't know his name, isn't it natural to call someone by their distinguishing feature to attract their attention?
The woman in casual wear beside him laughed then walked away.
After the woman left, I quickly realized my mistake. Father always told me that it was rude to interrupt people when they were talking with someone else.
I should have waited when they were done talking before I called out to him.
"I apologize. I should have waited for my turn to speak."
Spikyhead who was walking towards me halted his footsteps. He shook his head and I could hear him mutter, "I shouldn't even waste my time..."
The friendliest person in the area walked away but instead of heading out of the plaza, he chased after a green-haired girl in a student uniform.
Since he can't force his way out of the plaza, he was using this time to make friends with other people.
I guess he's a really friendly person.
I looked around for the next possible partner for collaboration. The flashes of light were gradually dwindling but there were still a steady number of them coming in.
"You shouldn't call people like that."
While I was looking around, I heard a soft voice behind me. A small woman with a short bob cut was smiling at me.
"The man almost attacked you because you embarrassed him."
"I don't understand. I know I was a bit rude, but it was unintentional. By the way, my name is Val. Are you interested to join an experiment?"
"You're not even listening to me... Okay, this sister is feeling generous today. What can I help you with?"
Feeling Generous Today? What a strange name.
I shrugged and paid no heed about it. I'm not one to talk since my dad has an even weirder taste in names.
"I noticed a bug on my system. It seems like it's preventing me from logging out of the game. I just want to cross-check if you have the same problem or is it my system alone."
"Oh, if that's true then that could be a huge problem. Wait, let me check. Mhmm?"
It seems like my voice was too loud or the topic was a bit sensitive, but I could see people waving their hands in the air calling for the system menu.
The generous bob cut sister exclaimed, then stared at me.
"Eh? It's true... I can't log out. Do you know how to call the admins? I'm new to this and I really didn't read the manual."
After her confirmation, more and more players vocalized their doubts.
The serene plaza then became divided into three groups of players. The excited group who wanted to venture this world, the players who are in a state of worry due to the system bug, and the nonchalant people touring around the place.
After calming down, I realized that I knew the place. I'm currently standing in the vicinity of the country's national hero, R Park.
A lot of changes could be seen but most of them were on renovations and designs of the city. The city looked... rustic.
Since I already got my answer from the experiment, I started walking away from the unpleasant crowd.
"Please wait!"
I turned around after hearing the familiar voice calling out to me.
I waited for what she intended to say but the generous sister did not speak, so I turned back and left.
Not a second later, I felt someone tugging at my shirt, so I turned back once again.
"What are you planning to do? I mean, do you have any plans on how to log out?" she asked worriedly.
So it was this. It was normal to worry I guess.
"Considering that this was a system bug, the admins would surely log out everyone after some time. There might be some problems on their end like overheating, too much traffic, and other viable reasons. However, no matter what reason they may have, people would become enraged after getting out. Getting trapped inside a virtual game isn't something fun."
"Wh-what if the admins can't help us log out? What would happen if they can't fix it today? Do you have some idea on how to get out?"
"Mhmm... there are two ways that I can think of, but there is no guarantee that they will work perfectly."
"What is it, please tell me!"
"First, we're still inside a VR Game. We'll get forcefully disconnected after the three-days game limit. There's not much risk since the VRCapsule came with a free nutrient pack that could last for a week."
"Oh, yeah! That's right. This VRCapsule is so expensive that I'm actually thankful for the free nutrient pack included after buying it. How about the second one?"
"The second one is a bit riskier. Beta testers confirmed that you get kicked out of the game once you reached the lowest amount of power possible. The risk would be that you'll only have 1 power when you go back on the other side, if you have some kind of sickness or you got misfortune following you around, you could die from hunger and other natural causes."
"Th-that's true... that's a bit scary don't you think?"
"Yeah, I think so. I'm going now."
I didn't wait for her response and immediately left. I already wasted a lot of time answering her questions. The only reason why I even stopped for her was due to her willingness to help me earlier.
This time, we're even so I have no reason to accommodate her anymore.
After idling for several minutes, the crowd finally started to disperse. I didn't totally waste my time doing nothing, since I calibrated myself a bit. A few warm-up exercises just to make sure that I'm on tip-top shape.
Everyone was headed to the Administrative Building, the local city hall, to register as agents and accept some quests.
Due to the feature allowing a player to bring some of your real-world stats into the game, the max beginner basic stats were capped at fifteen points on every stat. Regular people had around ten points average stats while only those who were fortunate ones had higher than fifteen.
Due to the stat difference of individuals upon entering the game, some people could be seen running past the slow runners.
After the beta testing, faction recruitments were already widespread outside the game. These groups of people have internal information circulating privately.
According to how things were going, most of the people were heading for the combat route. Killing and hunting missions would be their priority.
Just like everyone else, I was headed for the Administrative Building but I'm not interested in hunting zombies and mutants.
I'm just someone who's curious about the crafting system of this world. Father doesn't normally let me go out and except for the orphanage visits, there were no instances where I was allowed to stroll on my own.
Along the way, I opened my inventory and found ten pieces of barley bread in them. Except for the ten pieces of bread, there was nothing else in my inventory.
Do not fret, this is normal. Everyone starts with ten bread and whether they starve or not depends on them.
The beta test only lasted for a month but the beta tester's dedication in gathering information about the game was remarkable.
Ten minutes passed and I arrived at the Administrative Building. I lined up together with a rowdy crowd of talkative players, who were excitedly discussing the tricks and battle plans they had in mind.
Another ten minutes passed and I arrived at the admission desk. It took so long to since there was a sudden influx of players and there are only a few receptionists available.
"How may I help you?" a lady in a unique blue dress greeted me. I became dazed for a second after seeing her smile but managed to hastily recollect my thoughts.
I responded, "I would like to register as an agent."
"Okay, please extend your arm." The receptionist guided my hand and used a scanner to scan the holowatch on my wrist. My details appeared on her computer and she started typing things out. The system generated my Agent Rank and a big zero appeared on the screen.
When she finished, she scanned my holowatch once more to confirm whether the information has been updated.
No one was surprised about my agent ranking since even the people prior were also of the same rank.
[Name: Val] [Profession: Tinker] [Level: 1 - 0% XP]
[Health: 100] [Energy: 100]
[Title: Craftsman]
[Power - 5][Endurance - 4][Speed - 4][Wits - 10][Cunning - 10][Charm - 10]
[Stat Points - 0]
[Trait]
[Feeble][Fast Thinker][Perseverance]
[Assemble|Disassemble] [Lv. 1 - 0%]
[Identify] [Lv. 1 - 0%]